Driver Sentenced for Killing Deputy

Despite acknowledging Tanya Pittman was probably remorseful for causing the car accident that took a young deputy sheriff’s life, a judge Thursday sentenced the 37-year-old woman to the maximum allowed--13 years in prison.

“I don’t believe this was an accident,” Superior Court Judge Donald Coleman said. “If anything, it is the expected consequence while driving a vehicle under the influence of drugs.”

Pittman, who earlier offered a public apology for the accident, hung her head as Coleman announced the sentence. Behind her, Deputy Lisa Whitney’s husband, Scott, and mother, Jan Bryant, sobbed and embraced.

Pittman was arrested Aug. 12, 1998, after her car slammed into a car driven by Whitney, 28, who was on her way to interview a witness in a rape case.

According to court testimony, Pittman was driving 56 mph in a 45 mph zone when her car struck Whitney’s vehicle in the intersection of Hill and Telephone roads in Ventura. Ten minutes earlier, a transformer explosion had knocked out power to the intersection’s traffic signals.

Blood tests revealed Pittman was under the influence of methamphetamine and prescription drugs at the time of the accident.

She was convicted in October on two counts of vehicular manslaughter--one for speeding and one for being under the influence of drugs.

Before sentencing, Pittman took the witness stand to express her regret and to apologize to Whitney’s family. It is the first time Pittman has spoken publicly about the accident since her arrest.

“I am sorry,” Pittman said, sobbing. “I am so sorry.”

She turned to Whitney’s husband, seated in the front row of the spectator section, crowded with relatives and fellow deputies.

“I pray to God every day for the sorrow to ease from your heart,” Pittman said. “I pray to God you will allow me to take some of your sorrow.”

Whitney’s relatives, however, pleaded for the maximum prison sentence possible.

Scott Whitney, an Oxnard police officer, tearfully recalled learning of his wife’s accident from a supervisor at work. After rushing to Ventura County Medical Center, he asked a nurse if he could see his wife. “I could tell by the look on her face it was bad,” said Whitney, pausing to catch his breath.

He said the couple had just purchased a new home days before his wife’s death. “We spent years looking for this home, but we only lived in it for three days.”

Whitney also lashed out at Pittman’s attempt the day before to get a new trial. Defense attorneys contended a crime lab contaminated the blood samples, making it appear that Pittman consumed more drugs than she actually had. Coleman dismissed the argument and refused to grant a new trial.

“Obviously she thinks of herself as a victim of circumstance,” Whitney said. “But I see her as a career criminal.”

Pittman has a history of felony convictions, including a 1981 manslaughter conviction for stabbing a man to death on a beach in San Diego County and a 1989 conviction for possession of drugs for sale. The prior convictions made Pittman eligible for a longer sentence.

Pittman’s brother and a close friend took the stand to defend her, saying she was deeply shattered after learning of Whitney’s death.

“Her first words to me were, ‘Why couldn’t it be me?’ ” brother Larry Pittman said. “ ‘She was so young, so beautiful, she just got married, she had everything going for her. Why couldn’t it be me?’ ”

“She would compare their lives,” friend Veronica Osmer said. “She thought [Lisa Whitney] did so much for the community. She couldn’t comprehend why she lived and Lisa died. She felt Lisa’s life outweighed hers.”

Osmer said Pittman has nightmares. In her dreams, she hears Whitney’s mother sobbing at her daughter’s hospital bedside.

Attorneys for Pittman tried to argue that Pittman’s previous convictions should not be a factor in Thursday’s sentencing. Coleman, however, said he could not ignore her lengthy criminal past, even though he did not believe she was a “bad person.”

“I really hope you find whatever it is that makes you that lost soul,” Coleman told Pittman after the sentencing. “Good luck to you.”

Outside court, Scott Whitney said he took some comfort in seeing Pittman receive the maximum sentence. And he was touched by her words of sorrow.

“Before today I didn’t really know how she felt,” Whitney said. “I really do think she’s sorry for what happened. But at the same time, I don’t think she’s taken responsibility for what she did. Nothing’s going to bring Lisa back. This sentence isn’t going to do us any good other than to have some satisfaction that justice was done here today. I think Lisa would have been satisfied with the outcome.”